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Good Governance Delivering Child Rights

Good governance delivering child rights works to ensure laws, policies and resources work for children through open, inclusive and accountable state institutions and other measures.

Nearly all governments in the world have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. There is no doubt that positive changes have come about in the lives of children thanks to the Convention. What is equally clear is that the child rights architecture set out in the Convention (‘the General Measures of Implementation’) to deliver rights for all children equally, is not in place in many countries and can be significantly improved in all countries.

The General Measures of Implementation (GMIs) is a list of measures governments need to put in place to institutionalise child rights and ensure good governance for children. Save the Children works with others including governments to do this. The measures include aligning legislation with the UNCRC, regulatory frameworks for non-state service providers, child rights impact assessments of laws, policies and budgets, cross departmental coordination bodies and independent child rights complaints mechanisms. Once these measures are in place they must also have adequate human and financial resourcing to ensure sustainability. Save the Children believes they are the essential foundation upon which other achievements in Save the Children’s in survival, learning and protection will be built.

In addition, Save the Children push for a governance that is transparent, inclusive and accountable and has formal opportunities for children and civil society to participate. The organization is engaged with the Open Government Partnership (OGP) to make their national open government plans work for children and as a platform for governments to implement SDG Goal 16 governance related targets. Save the Children seeks to integrate governance related targets into the SDG accountability framework.

Documents (17)

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Save the Children’s Child Rights Governance Global Theme, through Save the Children Denmark, contracted the Centre for Children’s Rights (CCR) at Queen’s University Belfast to support this study on children’s experiences of exercising their civil and poli

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Save the Children (SC) has a strong track record in fighting for children’s rights to become children’s realities. SC believes that an empowered civil society is a key indicator of the sort of open, inclusive and accountable governance, which is necessary

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Save the Children believes that a strong, diverse and independent civil society can play an important role in ensuring the realisation of children’s rights. This policy brief outlines why Save the Children believes that civil society is important for chil

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This guide has been developed to support Child Rights Governance (CRG) staff to develop programme work to strengthen the civil rights and freedoms of children within their broader CRG programme strategy. It expands upon Save the Children’s overarching CRG

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'Children in politics: A collection of 11 inspiring, motivating and suggestive case studies on children’s engagement in governance', shares experiences and lessons learned from Save the Children Members and country programmes along with examples from the

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Save the Children is committed to ensuring that all rights set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and its Optional Protocols are fulfilled – now, in times of crisis, and in the future, for all children including those

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Work on Child Rights Governance (CRG) aims to build societies that fulfil children's rights by establishing and strengthening the governance system necessary for states to effectively implement the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNC

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This publication is part of Save the Children's ‘Governance fit for children’ research project launched in 2010. This booklet contains eight country-specific examples on how Save the Children successfully has supported governments to respond and step up t

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When a State ratifies the Convention on the Rights of the Child, it becomes obligated under international law to implement it. The Committee on the Rights of the Child has drafted this general comment to outline States parties’ obligations to develop and

"Child Parliament" is a platform for children from every corner of Bangladesh, and from all walks of life, to get together and debate the issues that most affect them in a mock parliamentary forum. The 13th session of the “Child Parliament” was held on 31

Save the Children Sweden (SC Sweden) began supporting organizations and emerging Save the Children (SC) members in Eastern Europe in 1990 and established a Europe Regional Program in 2006. In 2009 SC Sweden became the managing member of SC’s office in Kos

There are around 64 million children in Bangladesh (UNICEF, 2008), yet the current governance framework does not adequately or effectively include this important demographic. The lack of institutionalized and systematic child participation negatively affe